According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, coal mining revives,now the spread of scrubbing technology, which can remove 97% of a coal-fired power plant's sulfur dioxide, has put Illinois coal back in play.
As power plants installed scrubbers, coal companies reopened mines over the last decade. The state of Illinois was expected to produce 56 million tons of coal last year, up 70% from 2010 according to the EIA.
Peabody Energy Corp. the largest U.S. coal producer, says it produces 30 million tons of coal a year in the Illinois Basin, up from 10 million tons five years ago.
"Now that scrubbers are being put in, Illinois is the low-cost and more-attractive coal," says Jim Thompson, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.
Coal production fell 7% overall in the U.S. in 2012 but rose 10% in the Illinois Basin. Its output is expected to surpass that of Central Appalachia by the end of the decade, according to the EIA.
The basin, which stretches from Illinois into Missouri, Indiana and Western Kentucky, is near railroads, the Mississippi River and other transportation options, offering opportunities even for startups.
When Sunrise built its underground mine in Carlisle in 2005, the company did its own digging. Bids submitted by contractors were around $15 million, but Sunrise did the work for $4.5 million, says company President Brent Bilsland. "We mixed our own concrete. We set arches by hand."
"We don't have huge bureaucracies." he says. "Our mines aren't pretty," but the company is debt-free, Mr. Bilsland says. Hallador reported a 2012 profit of $23.8 million on revenue of $141.3 million.
Mr. Bilsland says Sunrise's nonunion workers earn an average of $75,000 a year and get health and retirement benefits. Only 6% of Illinois Basin miners belong to the United Miners Union compared with 27% in West Virginia.
Source: WSJ
